pasta--is it really runner food?

Rice (or other grains in their natural state). How do you think all those Africans got so good?

Rice, and vegetables, and a lot of altitude training.

Doogie Howser, M.D. wrote:

gwi wrote:

how so?

When something is "enriched", it's more or less garbage. Enriched white flour of any kind is something you should stay away from.

During the harvesting process, the whole grain is completely destroyed and stripped of any good things (fiber, vitamins, minerals, etc) so that you're left with a very inferior product. Then, just to "cover their asses", the companies try to put back some of the vitamins and minerals they so harshly removed earlier.

This results in cheap white bread and white pasta, which, while complex carbs, are more or less the equivalent of shoveling table sugar into your mouth. Add to this the whole "high GI" thing (if you're interested in GI at all), and you find a terrible product.

Stick to whole grains. Enriched products are trash.

Because no eats just pasta in a meal, the glycemic index is overrated. You should really look at the glycemic load of the meal as a whole. The meat, the sauce, the salad, and any other non carbohydrate you eat with the pasta will attenuate the pasta's effect on plasma glucose levels.

Oh, trust me, I pay very little attention to the glycemic index. Unless you're eating JUST that food, alone, in a fasted state, it's not a very useful tool at all.

what brand pastas do ya'll eat? i like barilla and seem to run well on it. how bout soem ggod whole wheat ones?

and what about mercury in tuna?

By the way, the glycemic load of pasta itself is quite high.

But anyway, anything with "enriched" in the ingredients, even "enriched whole wheat flour" or something like that, is not really optimal. "Enriched whole wheat flour" is just a way to trick you into thinking it's whole grain. It's not. It's pretty much identical to regular white bread/pasta.

trailrunnerboy wrote:

what brand pastas do ya'll eat? i like barilla and seem to run well on it. how bout soem ggod whole wheat ones?

and what about mercury in tuna?

From my observations/readings, the whole tuna/mercury thing is not as serious as the animal rights' activists would lead you to believe.

Anecdotally, I've never had a problem with it. For about 3 years straight I was averaging 7-9 cans a week of tuna, and never suffered any ill consequences from it.

But, if you are concerned, Chunk Light tuna has significantly less mercury than Solid White Albacore.

keep this going

what do you think of fiber enriched pasta? (where gluten is removed and wheat fiber and protein is added)

peanut butter. 24/7.

Honey. Gels are bullshit. Lydiard says honey. Case closed.

tofu. don't eat that fried chinese style shit though. but eat lots of tofu. with rice and steamed veggies.